New Delhi’s Sri Ram Centre for the Performing Arts was agog with young crowd on the inaugural evening of Expressions, a three-day festival of international Contemporary dance. It was a welcome initiative to offer a platform to young choreographers and dancers to showcase their contemporary, innovative, imaginative dance, from India and the West for collaboration and dialogue. The profile of audience seemed to have undergone a change as the audience had young generation lustily cheering up the dancers.
The two choreographic works presented on the opening night were “The Colour White”, choreographed and performed by French dancer Gilles Chuyen to the music by Iranian musician Fakhroddin Gaffari, and “Mystical Forest” choreographed by Santosh Nair for his Sadhya group.
Dressed in a white costume with a scarf, lit up with white light, Gilles raised his arms to heaven as if offering prayer in slow motion that gathered momentum with his pirouettes, a la chakkars in Kathak, and like Dervish dancers. The white colour suggested metaphor for a swan, the movements indicative of wings, palms unfurling like alapdama, lotus. The music on hand-held drum moved in sync with the movements. In the other half Gilles moved to the accompaniment of other instruments, played brilliantly by Fakhroddin, both ending on a quiet note when Gilles lay on the floor. It was an open-ended choreographic piece leaving audience to interpret the way they want.
“The Mystical Forest” with excellent lights was a spectacular performance. Santosh Nair employed Mayurbhanj Chhau movements which were executed by extremely well trained male and female dancers. It looked like belonging to imaginary, mysterious tribe, performing their private rituals, in a forest, with animals, deer hunting, coronation of forest King, and dancing wildly with amazing energy. The pas-de-deux between a female and a male was breathtaking, further enhanced by exquisite lighting. However, the work would be more effective if edited to avoid repetition.
On the second night, Swiss choreographer and dancer Gregory Stauffer in his solo “Walking”displayed his amazing stamina, walking in mind-boggling ways, like Ostrich, animals, all on fours, rolling, jumping and ending in a colourful costume playing flute through nose, creating lyrical atmosphere.
Ashley Lobo, trained at Bodenweiser Dance Centre in Sydney, with his dance classes Danceworx in Delhi and Mumbai, has a huge following among the young dancers. His is a name to reckon with as a choreographer. His Navadhara Indian Dance theatre awed the audience with high voltage performance in “Amaara – A journey of Love”. The sheer physicality and flawless training in Jazz and Contemporary techniques showed his dancers’ virtuosity. Abstract in concept, it also had ritualistic mystical flavour. A feeling of repetition could have been avoided with tight editing.
On the final night Mumbai-based Samveet Nagdev Dance Arts presented Dhrut choreographed by Samveet. He also conceived and arranged lighting and costumes. The four member troupe, two women and two men with three musicians seated on the stage gave a scintillating performance. Having a thin story line revolving around three elements — time (female) space and speed, past, present and future, and their interrelationship in a seamless synchronisation, the performance was a sheer delight to see the movements ranging from ballet, contemporary and Kathak. It was set to music using cajon for rhythm, djembe (drum) and key board played by differently abled Jayant Pawar.
It captivated the audience from the word go. The energy level was admirable. Kathak was used artistically. All the four dancers performed with intensity. The commentary appeared dispensable, as the movements were not one to one in its interpretation. The company has a bright future.
The finale was by Sangeeta Sharma whose Delhi-based Anvesha Society for Performing Arts chose the theme of Mahabharata battle, titled “Antatah: The 13th Day”. It dealt with Chakravyuha and the killing of Abhimanyu. Sangeeta’s choreography was suitable to the theme. The military formation by the seven saptarathis, seven charioteers was imaginative, using martial arts like Kalaripayattu performed with commendable expertise by Subhashish Dey as Abhimanyu. The story is well-known and struck an immediate chord with the audience.
In all departments including lights, costumes, props, soliloquy — part English and part Bengali though songs — the entire production was professional. The festival was a runaway success. However, it still needs to be spruced up. The exhibition could have been mounted in a better way with gun captions. Typos could have been avoided. Drawn from the collection of Sangeet Natak Akademi, it had sufficient historical range. The screening of films of contemporary dance in a loop was a welcome idea. Also, the festival of such a nature deserved a fine brochure as a collector’s item with scholarly articles.
